Economic Growth- Here we go again

Kaitlin Dryburgh

Good news unemployment in Scotland has fallen in this most recent quarter and now sits below the UK average. Be that only marginally lower, Scotland’s economic inactivity is falling and median monthly pay for households is strong.

But what does this actually tell us because in a sense this isn’t a good news story?

Two other significant happenings have taken place in the past two weeks that help to paint a picture.

The first being John Swinney speaking at an international investment summit in London where he declared that child poverty could be eradicated by increasing investment in Scotland. The old ‘growing our economy’ message was on offer and it followed the usual pattern.

The second a report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on the landscape of poverty in Scotland. It makes it very clear that conditions have not improved, in some cases they have gotten worse and there seems to be very little action taken to remedy this. Still one in four children live in Scotland, while one in five adults live in poverty unable to afford many essentials.

So we have unacceptable levels of poverty, we have unemployment down (indicating a robust economy and low inactivity), and we have the First Minister stating one of his ways to put an end to poverty is through growing the economy via private investment.

This doesn’t add up. Except it does, doesn’t it. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation clearly state that the action from the Scottish Government in recent years has been poor and they’re most definitely going to miss their targets. Meanwhile this government has been one of the largest advocates of private investment. And in the face of this report (although of course they weren’t the only ones waving their hands going ‘this isn’t working’) John Swinney wants to carry on plugging away with the usual strategy, private investment and economic growth.

It seems that’s all we’re getting offered from all corners of the UK, economic growth. Economic growth is apparently going to solve all of our issues. Poverty problem- economic growth. NHS in trouble, economic growth. No where to live- economic growth. Bad haircut- have you tried economic growth?

What does John Swinney and Keir Starmer think the previous lots had been trying to do? Not grow the economy. This is no novelle idea and growing the economy to promise better standards and solve issues has been offered up before and isn’t working. Scotland is one of the richest countries in the world relative to its size and the SNP who have been in power since 2007 have regularly talked about the might of the Scottish economy. Yet it doesn't seem to have solved the problem.

Just like our drug and alcohol issues, Scotland can’t get a grip on the child poverty plague. We know that because how many have promised to sort the problem out, starting with Sturgeon. Now Swinney promises that this will be a focus of his government yet it had been for years. The ‘one in four children living in poverty’ statistic isn’t really new, yet no new meaningful action is being offered up to try and solve this.

The dip in unemployment indicates the economy is already fairly strong and we don’t have masses unemployed, but we obviously have an issues with in-work unemployment. In Scotland 6 in 10 of families who live in poverty have one or more adults in work, yet still can’t afford some of the basic necessities. The majority of children living in poverty in Scotland have at least one parent working, so this notion that you get a job, you become an economic player and contribute to the economy’s growth just doesn’t pay off. Private investment and net zero isn’t helping those who simply want to put food on the table.

So looking at in-work poverty the problem isn’t that we need more people in work, the problem is low-paid jobs. Jobs that aren’t paying enough are hugely to blame for the mess that we’re in now. Yet, leaders don’t seem to be addressing that issue. We’ve not been hearing that from the investment summit funnily enough. It won’t come as a surprise that the majority of in-work adults living in poverty have low paying jobs. Poor contracts and low paid jobs are one of several reasons why children will remain living in poverty. If we were to increase investment ten-fold that won’t really change. Economic growth built on economic insecurity won’t be the answer to eradicating poverty, but that’s because deep down no on expects it too.

The private investment they’re always banging on about on the whole just boosts the pockets of the richest, they just take their slice of the pie which is most of it anyway and scurry away. Growing the economy and focusing so much on GDP and private investment will always leave crumbs for those living in the most deprived circumstances.

As Robin has explained many a time GDP was never meant to be a marker for society’s success and shouldn’t continue to be. It is of course a great indicator for those with money and power but it doesn’t tell the whole story and definitely doesn’t consider those most economically vaulnrable.

Scotland’s long and winding history with trying to curb child poverty isn’t set to improve by the looks of things and it probably won’t matter that unemployment is down or the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and many others like Common Weal are going red in the face explaining this isn’t the solution. And as we wait for what seems like years for the UK government to finally release their budget it looks like we might return to some form of austerity while Keir begins to inject and coach people back into work all in the name of economic growth. They’ll all continue the façade that we can use private investment and economic growth to get us out of this mess.